Textile lubrication



Patented Dec. 7, 19,31

UNETED STATES TEXTILE LUBRICATION Victor Conquest, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Armour and companmchicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois No Drawing.

Application June 29, 1938,

Serial No. 88,065

15 Claims.

This invention relates to textile lubrication and it comprises, as new products, textile filaments. threads and the like containing an'adsorbed lubricating film of molecular dimensions composed of ketones having the general formula terials are lubricated for a number of reasons. a

The lubricants keep .the fibers soft and pliable, protect against broken filaments or threads and help to maintain the tensile strength of the fibers. Lubrication is especially necessary when dealing with fibers of extremely fine diameter and high twist.

Practically all textile fibers are subjected to a lubricant treatment at some stage during the manufacture. Application of the lubricant can be in one of several ways. Sometimes hanks of the yarn are simply immersed in the lubricating solution. In other cases cops or bobbins are sprayed with, or immersed in the lubricant. In still other cases the individual threads are lubricated by passage through an oiling mechanism. This generally consists of a wick arrangement which is saturated with the lubricant and which contacts with the thread.

Hitherto textile lubricants have had to have rather special properties. Most of these lubricants consist of aqueous emulsions of tallow, oils or wax. The art'has hitherto considered it desirable that the lubricant in the emulsion be one which can be readily removed from the fiber after the weaving or knitting operations. In other words, the lubricant in the past has not usually been a part of the final finished woven or knitted fabric. Most of the textile lubricants hitherto used have been greasy or oily and as soon as they have servedtheir purpose the art has invariably sought to remove them. Other- 50 wise the feel of the woven goods would be objectionable and there would be many difliculties in dyeing and bleaching operations. Nevertheless, any substance which might be retained in the woven or knitted fabric and act as a permanent softening and lubricating agent would be desirable provided it did not have any objectionable efiect in the subsequent dyeing or finishing of the cloth. Hitherto no such lubricant has been available.

I have now discovered that certain ketones which can broadly be defined as those having the structural formula wherein R. is a closed ring radical and R is an alkyl radical containing at least 6 carbon atoms are excellent lubricants for textiles, that they are actually adsorbed by the textile thread as asurface film of molecular dimensions, that they can be retained in the thread, and that they are not objectionable in the subsequent dyeing and liquid treatment of the woven materials. Consequently, as a result of my discovery, it is unnecessary to subject the lubricated thread after weaving to anytreatment for the purpose of removing the lubricant. The ketones of the present invention are'chemically stable. show no tendency to oxidize or become rancid and they do not hydrolyze, all of which means that their presence in' the thread is advantageous. They do not contribute a greasy or waxy feel to the woven fabric and they do not have any effect at all on the dyeing of the lubricated threads. The actual amount of lubricant in the thread is insignificant and can hardly be detected, yet the thread maintains its softness, pliability, and tensile strength over long periods of time. Consequently, threads lubricated with the ketones of my invention are preserved, and it can be said that my products both preserve and lubricate the finished yarn or three I shall now describe more specific embodiments of my invention, but before doing so I wish to indicate its broad scope by listing many ketones which can be used in the practice of my process. Perhaps the lowest member of the series is phenyl hexyl ketone, a liquid substance, in which the alkyl group contains six carbon atoms. Other ketones are as follows:

They

Alpha naphthyl pentadecyl ketone Anthracyl heptadecyl'ketone (mixtures) Biphenyl heptadecyl ketone Biphenyl tridecyl ketone Biphenyl undecyl ketone p-Methyl biphenyl heptadecyl ketone p-Chlorbiphenyl heptadecyl ketone Furyl heptadecyl ketone Furyl undecyl ketone Methyl furyl heptadecyl ketone Dibenzofuryl heptadecyl ketone Dibenzofuryl undecyl ketone In the practice of my invention I do not ordinarily use all of the above ketones. Some of them are rather expensive to prepare. Advantageously I use those derived from xylene or benzene by reaction thereof with higher fatty acid chlorides in the presence of aluminum chloride by a Friedel-Crafts reaction. This general process is old and well known in the art and I shall not describe it in detail.

Some of the ketones falling within the broad disclosure of my invention are normally liquid. For example, a mixture of isomeric ketones derived from ordinary xylene and fatty acid chlorides derived from lard fatty acids is a free flowing liquid and the textile threads can be oiled in the usual manner with this liquid. Ketones in this mixture will have alkyl groups containing eight to eighteen carbon atoms. This liquid mixture of ketones can be used in ordinary oiling devices in place of the aqueous tallow emulsions hitherto used. Or the yarn in skein form can be dipped in a liquid bath of these ketones.

When using ketones which are normally solid it is advantageous to emulsify them in an ordinary soap solution and then apply the solution to the yarn or thread in the usual way. Or the ketones can be dissolved in suitable solvents, such as gasoline and the thread drawn through such a solution, or yarn bundles immersed therein, or the material sprayed on under suitable exhaust hoods. Since the solid ketones are of waxlike character I can, of course, cause the thread to be lubricated to be drawn over a cake of the ketone, advantageously softened somewhat by moderately raising its temperature.

It does no harm to put an excess of the ketone on the thread, except that this is, of course, wasteful. Should there be an excess of ketone on the thread much of it is removed mechanically in the subsequent washing and scouring operations customarily used in the art. I only wish to retain an extremely thin film which is actually adsorbed by the surface of the thread. For some peculiar reason the thread regardless of its nature appears to adsorb a thin film of the ketone and retain it tenaciously. This means that, although the washing and scouring operations following weaving may remove excess ketone mechanically held to the fiber. surface, these operations will not remove ketones actually adsorbed by the surface. This adsorption phenomenon is in the realm of surface chemistry and is analogous to the adsorption of various liquids, solids, and gases by surfaces.

It would serve no useful purpose for me to describe the treatment of textile fibers with all of the various ketones listed above. I have disclosed many ketones to indicate the broad scope of my invention. In each instance the ketone can be used in the manner described above. Various mixtures of ketones can, of course, be used and in the appended claims I denote them, either singly or as mixtures, as ketonic materials.

All types of textile threads and yarn can be treated by my invention. Rayon is especially suitable for treatment and my ketones have many advantages when used with rayon. Cotton fabrics and threads, silk, linen and the like can all be lubricated with my substances.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. A textile thread carrying an adsorbed film of a ketonic material having the general formula wherein R is a closed ring radical and R is an alkyl radical containing at least six carbon atoms.

2. The thread as in claim 1 wherein the ketonic material is an aralkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least six carbon atoms.

3. The thread as in claim 1 wherein the ketonic material is a phenyl alkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least six carbon atoms.

4. The thread as in claim 1 wherein the ketonic material is a phenyl heptadecyl ketone.

5. The thread as in claim 1 wherein the ketonic material is axylyl alkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least eight carbon atoms.

6. The process of preparing a permanently lubricated thread which comprises treating the thread with a ketonic material having the general formula wherein R. is a closed ring radical and R. is an alkyl radical containing at least six carbon atoms.

7. The process as in claim 6 wherein the ketonic material is an aralkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least six carbon atoms.

8. The process as in claim 6 wherein the ketonic material is a phenyl alkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least six carbon atoms.

9. The process as in claim 6 wherein the ketonic material is a phenyl heptadecyl ketone.

10. The process as in claim 6 wherein the ketonic material is an xylyl alkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least eight carbon atoms.

11. A rayon thread or yarn carrying a coating of a ketonic material having the general formula wherein R is a closed ring radical and R is an alkyl radical containing at least six carbon atoms.

12. The rayon thread or yarn as in claim 11 wherein the ketone is an aralkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least six carbon atoms.

13. The rayon thread or yarn as in claim 11 wherein the ketone is a xylyl alkyl ketone in which the alkyl group contains at least six carbon atoms.

14. Rayon thread or yarn coated with a xylylheptadecyl ketone.

15. A textile thread coated with a xylylheptadecyl ketone.

' VICTOR CONQUEST. 

